Smokes's 40th Birthday
by 28-characters-later
Summary: Trying to give writing something funny a try. so have Smokes remembering some of his very many driving test fails. re-uploaded Again, hopefully it's readable now. Smoke's actual 40th birthday was the 23rd of March. I Had put clear signs in here when there was a flash back and when it changed. but this site didnt like that, sorry it's not clear when the flashbacks happen


Disclaimer: L4D 1 and 2 belong to Valve, Smokes and Mark are mine. This was meant to be posted on Smokes' actual 40th birthday, and it was, but something messed up making it unreadable. I only recently noticed. Hopefully it's readable now.

…

Smokes stood on the roof of his apartment building looking out over at the view of the destroyed city below. After lighting up a cigarette, he took a tattered looking wallet from the pocket of his scruffy green jacket. He opened it and took out a little chain of pictures, like the kind you get in the photo booths at theme parks. In the string of pictures it looked like a slightly younger, less bitter looking, non-infected version of himself and a lovely red-head woman. In the pictures there was one of them being all cute and hugging, another of the girl showing off an engagement ring, another of a much younger brunette boy photo-bombing and the last of the non-infected Smokes pulling the other boy in and giving him a noogie. 

The smoker sighed sadly and put the pictures back in the wallet. Not wanting to put the wallet away just yet he decided to take a look through some of the other things in it. He looked through some of the cards still in it before he found his old driver's license. He took the card out to take a better look at it, reminding himself of how hard it was for him to get it. 

A sixteen year old Frank Anderson sat in his father's car in the back seat with his best friend as they were driven to his first driver's test. "Ok man, you got this," Mark told Frank as they pulled into the DMV. 

After a long wait inside, Frank was able to take the test. At first he was doing pretty well, just as he had been practicing, however several times he went over the speed limit, passed a stop sign, and took a turn a bit too hard going briefly into the other lane. Luckily there were no cars there at the time. However he failed his driver's test. 

Three years later, on Frank's fourteenth driver's test, Mark walked with him to the DMV. Once Frank was taking the test it started off going pretty well at first until he almost caused a road block by driving too far forward for a turn on a narrow street. Just that wouldn't have been too bad, but shortly after he struggled to parallel park and stated out loud how he should have practiced it more. 

When Frank was twenty-three he was on driving test number thirty and doubted if he would ever pass the test. "You know, don't be too hard on yourself man, I mean, some people just aren't Meant to drive." Frank shot Mark a sour glare as they headed once again to the DMV. "I mean there's always the bus, riding a bike and hey! Walkin's healthy!" Mark snickered when Frank flipped him off. 

The test, just like all the others, started out well. As it went on however, it continued to go well. He didn't go over the speed limit, didn't go too fast on turns, stopped at stop signs and stop lights, and even remembered to check the mirrors and buckle up before starting off. The Instructor seemed pleased with how Frank was doing as well, and as the test neared its end, he told him all that was left was to back into a space once they were back at the DMV. 

Frank nodded and, after signaling, turned back into the parking lot. As carefully as he could he tried to back into a spot, however he felt just letting it roll in was going far too slow so he tried to give it a little gas. 

He gave it a little too much gas and hit the car in the spot just behind the one he was trying to pull into, which happened to be the instructor's car. 

Frank gave an audible groan once the instructor got out of the car after crossing off the "pass" note on his clipboard. 

Keeping up with pushing for four tests a year, Frank had gotten up to driving test number forty-three during the time he was twenty-six. He dragged his feet while Mark once again pulled him along to the DMV. "C'mon, 43's the charm! Statistically speaking you have to pass eventually!" Frank just sighed and went in for his test. 

When the test started Frank tried to push down feelings of dread and just focus on doing everything right. Keeping it at the speed limit he carefully followed all the instructions and this time when backing in at the end he didn't give it any extra gas. 

Much to Frank's amazed delight he was told he passed this time. He failed forty-two times but finally passed on the forty-third try. 

Smokes was brought back to the present hearing his name being called. Mark, now a common infected, was using his hands to stand on the roof ledge in front of him.

"You here now? You were just staring off into space for a while." 

Smokes blinked before nodding and putting his driver's license away again. "Yeah, yeah... just remembering something..." 

Mark gave him a pat on the shoulder before hopping down from the ledge. "Well no time to dwell too long on the past. C'mon! I have something Big planned!"

"What for?" Smokes asked after realizing the cigarette he had lit earlier had burnt out while he was remembering some of his driving tests and started to light up another. 

Mark grinned, he half hoped he would have forgotten, just so he could enjoy the reaction. "Remember? Your 40th birthday!" Smokes coughed, dropping his lighter and cigarette while Mark laughed. "C'mon, let's go be old zombies in style."


End file.
